


Discography

by gwendee



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Demons, Domestic Fluff, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Humor, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Introspection, It's important to this fic but like, Kid Fic, Light Angst, Magical Realism, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Supernatural Elements, The major character death tag is offscreen, Timeskips, Urban Fantasy, but softly and offscreen, it's not supposed to be that Vibe, people do die in this fic, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25017133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee
Summary: So Gakuho sold his soul to a demon. He figured he'd always do it. He had unrealistic ambitions and twisted dreams and everyone said he had probably made a deal with the devil to get to where he is in life.Ironically enough, that was all him. He worked his way up by his own merit. The occult part came later.Gakuho sells his soul to a demon. Gakushuu IS that demon.
Relationships: Asano Gakuhou & Asano Gakushuu
Comments: 123
Kudos: 239





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Life of an Asano](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24985834) by [WhatTheFridgeDude](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatTheFridgeDude/pseuds/WhatTheFridgeDude). 
  * Inspired by [Illuminate](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24519418) by [gwendee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee). 



> You all: don't you have literally so many unfinished fics to work on  
> Me: haha yeah
> 
> A big thank you to WhatTheFridgeDude who published an awesome story ([The Life of an Asano](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24985834)) that made me think of: this. You should check it out! (You can definitely see their influence in my work here haha).  
> Also thanks to Leo for providing me with this title that makes no sense even with context but I somehow love? Like it does not fit but it does?

**Discography**

> /dɪˈskɒɡrəfi/

> _noun_
> 
> noun: **discography** ; plural noun: **discographies**
> 
> a descriptive catalogue of musical recordings, particularly those of a particular performer or composer.
> 
> _"the factual reliability is commendable—he clearly had a good discography to hand"_
> 
>   * all of a performer's or composer's recordings considered as a body of work.
> 
> _"his discography is overwhelmingly classical"_
> 
>   * the study of musical recordings and compilation of descriptive catalogues.
> 
> _"jazz fans direct their intellectual energy to discography"_
> 
> 


"You know," Gakuho says, looking up from his work. "You're very annoying for a demon." 

The demon in question is noisily rifling through Gakuho's bookcase, and pulling random titles out as it pleases. It irks Gakuho because he'd never before realize one could make so much noise browsing for something to read and here it is.

"You're very snarky for a human," the demon retorts. It tugs out yet another book (to join the ever growing pile at its feet) and thrusts it upside down in Gakuho's direction. "What is this?" It demands. 

"Frankenstein. It's a classic." 

"Hm," the demon says, scrutinizing the cover for a beat, before deeming it unworthy of interest and sliding it back into the bookshelf. 

In the wrong place. 

"You put that all back in the right places when you are done," Gakuho says. 

"Sure, yeah, whatever." Adequate books procured, it absconds to a corner of the room and begins reading. Finally the house settles into a peaceful silence and Gakuho gets to concentrate on his task. 

Much later when he wraps his work up for the day and prepares to turn in, he realizes the demon is still reading. It has migrated to the scorch mark on Gakuho's floor he hadn't gotten to cleaning up, now sprawled on its stomach, engrossed in its text. Only then does Gakuho look over the assorted titles and see a mix of genres over varying time periods. 

"Is human literature that interesting?" Gakuho wonders aloud, and the demon's gaze snaps to him.

"Sure," the demon says. "Not to all demons. We have our own interests. I just happen to like it." 

"Hm," Gakuho says. "I'm going to bed. Remember to clean up afterwards." 

"Heard you the first time," the demon says, and flips a page. 

So Gakuho sold his soul to a demon. He figured he'd always do it. His father beat his mother half to death before upping and disappearing to who knows where. His mother had no time for him and overdosed in the back of a club. He made his way through rehab and hitched a full ride scholarship to Harvard, and then went back to Japan because he had no where else to go. He had unrealistic ambitions and twisted dreams and everyone called him a freak, that he probably made a deal with a demon to get to where he is in life. 

Ironically enough, that was all him. He worked his way up by his own merit. The demon part came later. 

Gakuho is not at the end of his rope. He has a house and a car and a bank account with more zeros than he knows what to do with, and too much empty space in his apartment and life. He is not a crazy or desperate man seeking for a last resort, or a child playing with a toy they should not be playing with.

He is just. Bored. Aimless. There's nothing else for him to chase in this life, and he is the textbook definition of perfection. He does not need love or wealth or sex or whatever else hell people sold their souls for. He just… 

… needed to pass some time. 

Gakuho does his research. He drafts a detailed contract so watertight even the occult can find no loophole in it, and he constructs a devil's circle so perfect that it could probably hold the Morningstar himself. He takes all the precautions, double checks and triple checks his work, and summons a demon. 

“…”

The demon is very much unlike what he expects.

It is not a red skinned, horned ans tailed common-media depiction of a demon. It is not even anything vaguely like how he would expect a creature from hell to be like. It is… a human child. Dark hair and wide eyes and coming up to Gakuho's waist. 

"So," the  _ child _ says. 

This is not a mistake. This child has appeared in thin air and materialised in the dead centre of the demon's trap. The only thing vaguely inhuman about it were it's eyes that glowed slightly red, but… that was it. There was no puff of smoke or the sort of fanfare that Gakuho would consider cheesy, but he would have appreciated it in place of this… unspectacular sight. 

How underwhelming. 

"Excuse you human, what is with that look?" The demon child says, tapping its foot. It even sounds like a bratty human kid. 

"You're just not what I expected," Gakuho says disappointingly. 

"Well," it says, and crosses it's arms. "There's nothing you can do about it now. So what do you want to wager for your soul?" 

Gakuho stares mournfully at it. "How old are you?" 

The little demon bristles. "How rude! Does it matter?! I'm not here to exchange pleasantries."

Gakuho looks over at his contract, then back at the demon. He sighs again. 

"Oh, you've written something out, how meticulous," the demon says. "Come on." 

"Perhaps this is a waste of time," Gakuho says. He could exorcise this and re-summon a more suitable demon. 

"Listen," the little demon bristles. "Yeah, I'm a child, you got that right. I'm young. But we all start somewhere! And I know what you're thinking - why me? I bet you wanted some hot sexy succubus - or incubus, whatever. But we aren't allowed to go out on our whims, you know. Whenever a summon is made, the most suitable available demon is selected, which means I'm the best match for you here even if you don't recognize it. You exorcise me and try a summoning again, that's right, you'll still get me. So shut the fuck up."

Gakuho blinks, bewildered. "The resources didn't say anything about demons being capable of mind reading." 

The little demon looks smug. "We're not. You're just like an open book." 

Best suited match, huh. 

So Gakuho gets a demon.

The next morning, Gakuho's bookshelf is arranged impeccably, as if there wasn't restless little shit rifling through it all day yesterday. The demon itself is a no-show and Gakuho doesn't quite know what it gets up to when Gakuho isn't present to watch it, but he doesn't mind. As long as it's there when he needs it. 

Some peace and quiet in the morning is preferable anyways. Gakuho doesn't knows if its a demon thing or a child thing (or a demon child thing). Demons have a never ending supply of energy and find trivialities such as sleeping and eating fundamentally useless, and children of all species were hyperactive. A devastatingly irritating combination. 

It makes itself known around Lunch, which is when Gakuho usually calls for it. "I got you food!" The demon sing-songs, placing a carton in front of Gakuho's face. "You're in the mood for Thai today, but you want something less savory for dessert so I have a plain beancurd from China."

Gakuho frowns. "I don't feel like eating beancurd today."

The demon rolls it's eyes as it always does when Gakuho expresses the slightest bit of doubt. "After food, you will be." 

He's right. 

A contract made with a demon must contain a definite deadline. There are no vague subjective clauses such as "... until I am satisfied" or "... until I deem it successful." Most humans, short-sighted as they are, often put the end of the task they set out to accomplish (when they find their parents' murderer, when they accumulate a million dollars), but then they complete their task and are whisked away before they get to reap the benefits of their success. 

"...when you are sixty years old?" The little demon says, looking surprised. "What a unique contract." 

Gakuho has provided a definite deadline - a time limit. He does not know what he wishes to accomplish, but he's sure it will come to him eventually. He put sixty, since the date seemed far away - he’s thirty two now - and he doesn’t quite wish to live too long in this dreary world.

The demon laughs. “It will go by in a blink, trust me,” it says, and they seal the contract.

He doesn’t know what to do with a demon, to be honest. The first three days the little demon keeps the household in order. Dishes are done and laundry is kept away, the floors are swept and the shelves are dusted. It goes about its afternoons like a little maid and spends it’s nights idly poking about Gakuho’s stuff.

A child demon of its age would have already lived longer than Gakuho, and it’s young appearance is mildly unsettling. Gakuho learns that it is very interested in human things. 

On the fourth day the demon starts bringing him meals. Gakuho begins trying strange combinations of foods from all around the world and he finds that he likes all of them. Then he learns that demons do not require food to survive, although it joins Gakuho for meals anyways. “It’s interesting,” it says, “I don’t need to eat, but it’s an enjoyable activity. You wouldn’t understand, because you do nothing for fun.”

Then a week later it starts bringing Gakuho strange knick knacks and hobby items, and Gakuho finds that he dislikes all of them. 

“So you don’t like knitting, origami, Sudoku, porn, guitar, weaving, or Nintendo.” The demon stares at him. “You’re very boring.”

“Shut up,” Gakuho grumbles.

“Have you figured out a direction in life yet,” the demon says, “or am I just going to play maid for the next three decades?”

Gakuho scowls at it. It’s been a month. “No,” he says. 

Gakuho has the recipe of an ideal life. He has money, made enough from investments and stock exchanges such that he could choose not to work a real job if he wanted to. He simply does to keep up with something to do. He had a nice penthouse apartment to himself with the payments all made, and he might have gotten a larger house if he had any reason to do, but sweeping all day to ensure the upkeep of a large house has never been an ideal chore for him. (Although now that he has the demon to take care of petty household managerial errands, he might consider moving into somewhere he can stretch his legs better?) He is not unattractive and he could find the company of women or men if he wanted to. There is simply nothing that needs to be done elsemore in his life.

The demon is smiling at him, irritatingly.

"If you claim to know me so well," Gakuho says, frustrated, "then what is it do I want?" 

"Well," the demon says, tapping it's chin in thought, and the next moment when Gakuho blinks he finds that he's staring at… 

… himself.

No, not himself, but a child version of himself. His hair and eye color, but his cheeks are rounder and his jaw is less defined, and he comes up to Gakuho's waist.

The child throws its arms open in the air and beams and says, "Daddy! I love you!" And Gakuho's heart seizes. 

Gakuho never wanted children. His parents did a terrible terrible job with him and he knows that any child of his would have a terrible terrible father. He thought that children were noisy and a nuisance and they made you less productive and more prone to headaches. He didn't want a child. 

"W-what is the meaning of this?!" Gakuho snaps, embarrassment already creeping up as his voice wavers. If your doppelganger was suddenly in front of you, he justifies, you too would be spooked. The child in his likeness, the  _ demon _ , just laughs. 

"This is what you want," the demon says, almost mischievously. 

Gakuho glares. "This!-" 

"I've seen it," the demon says. "How you long for someone's affectionate touch, even if it's from a demon. Your eyes light up when you're explaining something to me. You smile - I don't think you notice it - when you're not alone at the dinner table. You-" 

"Enough," Gakuho snaps. "You are being  _ presumptuous _ -" 

"Am I?" The demon says. 

Gakuho swallows his tongue. 

The demon -  _ Gakushuu _ , Gakuho reminds himself, spills a little bit of milk over the side of it’s cereal bowl during breakfast. Gakuho had never had breakfast with it, and he didn’t know it could be such a messy eater, or perhaps it was just playing the part as a five year old?

“How long will you keep this up?” Gakuho demands.

The demon looks up at him. “Huh?” It asks, faux-innocently, but the glimmer in it’s eyes betrays its true nature.

“Demon,” Gakuho starts. 

“No, call me Ga-ku-shuu!” The demon says, in a whiny five year old voice, and kicks Gakuho in the shin. “You can’t call me demon all the time, especially when we go out! It’s bad manners.”

Gakuho had - at the demon’s behest - chosen a name. Then the paperwork had appeared in his hands.  _ Gakushuu Asano _ , son of  _ Gakuho Asano _ .  Gakuho had almost crumpled it up. Instead he smoothed it down on his desk and slipped it into his drawer face-down.

Wait. “When we go out?” Gakuho questions.

“What, you want to lock me up here?” The demon says. “I’m a kid. I need sunlight, and fresh air, and fun.”

“Haven’t you been going out on your own? Why do you need-”

“Dad, I’m _ five _ .”

Gakuho shivers at that.  _ Dad _ .

How far will this charade go?

“ _ Dad _ !”

“Ga-ku-shuu,” Gakuho says softly, a little helplessly. 

The demon tugs at his pant leg insistently. “Can we get some?”

He’s pointing to a store, where the window display shows an assortment of candy. Around him are parents similarly being herded in the direction by their excitable children, and the demon looks up at Gakuho with a mischievous gaze.

Little brat.

“Please?”

“No.”

The demon scrunches up his face, as if ready to cause a commotion. There’s already a child having half a meltdown on the street, his harried mother trying her best to placate him, and Gakuho knows that the demon would take pleasure in making Gakuho a public spectacle.

“Okay, okay,” Gakuho says quickly. He lets the demon tug him into the store and he looks around it, feeling helplessly out of his depth. Other parents and their children give him a curious once-over but ultimately smile at them.

The demon is already up there, hands pressed to the glass, speaking to the cashier. “Can I have one of everything?”

“What?” Gakuho hurries up to him. “No!” 

It turns those stupid pleading eyes at him. “Pl-ease!”

Around him, parents giggle. 

“No,” Gakuho repeats. “Just pick one.”

It points to something shiny and bright and probably overly sweet. It gets bagged up and Gakuho pays for it - it’s the first time he buys something so frivolous - but then the demon bounces up to him and gives him the brightest grin. “Love you, dad!”

Gakuho’s face burns red with embarrassment.

“Couldn’t you have picked a less annoying age?” Gakuho grumbles.

The demon appraises him with a look that doesn’t feel right on a five year old. “You mean a teenager? You remember how old you are, right? Do you want people to think you became a father at fifteen?”

Fair point. 

The demon snacks on its candy. “Do you want one?”

“No.”

“Let’s go to the park.”

“The park?”

“Kids play at parks, don’t they?” 

Gakuho doesn’t know what kids do. He watches the demon scramble all over a jungle gym with other children and Gakuho fidgets awkwardly by the gate. He must look out of place in his starched shirt and stiff deposition, because one of the fathers waiting comes to approach him, and everyone else eavesdrops. They must think he has unscrupulous intentions.

“Hello,” the man says. “Never seen you around.”

Gakuho cannot say he has just moved here. The woman who lives two floors below him has a pair of twins, and she stands a bit away surveying him with an odd expression. She knows he does not have children. He considers his options when the demon runs up to him.

“Daddy!” It says, arms stretched wide, and Gakuho crouches down a little to meet him. He does not expect the demon’s hands to wrap around his neck and he stiffens a little, but then he realizes what he’s supposed to do and he scoops it up.

Their likeness is obvious. The man who approached him has a more relaxed posture now, having confirmed to himself that Gakuho is not a kidnapper. 

His neighbor still looks at him, slightly confused.

“I haven’t had any reason to be around before,” Gakuho says. “I just got custody of him.”

“Oh,” the man says. “Good for you.”

His neighbor comes up to him. “Mr Asano!”

“Oh, Mrs Hayasaki,” Gakuho greets, pretending to have just noticed her. “You’re here too.”

“I didn’t know you had a child,” she says, but she must have believed him, because she doesn’t sound accusing.

“Ah,” Gakuho says, not quite sure how to reply.

“I was staying with Mommy,” the demon says for him, “but Mommy says she doesn’t want me anymore and that mean man who said he was going to be my new daddy wanted to throw me away but I don’t want him as my new daddy, I want my actual daddy!” And the demon suddenly grips Gakuho’s collar so hard and tears spring in its eyes so quickly that even Gakuho’s heart jolts, and he’s fully aware it’s all an act. 

Mrs Hayasaki (and the nosy onlookers who are trying to pretend they aren’t listening in) gasp in unison. “Oh my!”

“I like daddy better - my real daddy,” the little demon says. And it nuzzles against Gakuho’s cheek.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Mrs Hayasaki says to the demon. Then she turns to Gakuho. “It must be hard, being a single father, but I’m sure the courts made a brilliant choice! If you need any help with babysitting you do know where to find me, neighbor.”

“Oh,” Gakuho says, feeling decidedly overwhelmed. He looks at the demon, who’s grinning up at him.

“Thank you, then,” Gakuho says.

“Daddy, you said we were going to meet the so-cial wor-ker.”

Gakuho does not have any meetings with any social workers, obviously. But he takes the escape route gratefully. “That’s right, Ga-ku-shuu,” he says, the name still sounding foreign to his own ears. How strangely similar to his own name, yet not. “Mrs Hayasaki, we best get going.”

“I bet you never struck yourself as a family man type,” the demon says to him.

“I never wanted kids,” Gakuho says.

“Sure you do,” the demon says. 

Gakuho cannot refute that, because the demon is still right there.

“It’s not what I would have expected of myself,” Gakuho admits.

The demon perks up suddenly. It runs to the bookshelf and pulls a random book free, and then immediately clambers onto the couch.  Then the doorbell rings.

What a strange reaction to the doorbell, Gakuho thinks. And then the demon starts reading aloud, except it reads in a rather childish and nonsensical fashion which Gakuho knows to be fake, because he’d seen it read a proficiency that- oh. When he answers the door, it’s Mrs and Mr Hayasaki. 

The demon continues reading aloud in the background, “the, three, seven, nine, four, people have eyes-”

“I hope it’s not too forward,” Mr Hayasaki said. “My wife mentioned you recently came into custody of your child. We imagine you must still be figuring out the ropes, we wanted to bring some of Aoi and Rei’s old toys over since they have outgrown them."

“Oh,” Gakuho says.

“Daddy!” The demon comes running up to him. It’s holding the book upside down. “What is this word?”

Gakuho rights the book for him and looks at what it is pointing at. “That’s a picture of a dog.”

“Why is it a picture?”

Gakuho blinks. What kind of question is that?

Mrs Hayasaki laughs. “I’m sure it wouldn’t take long for you to adjust. Having a child is really lively in the house. There’s so much more color in your living space already!”

Color? Gakuho turns around, and he blinks in astonishment to see a few toys strewn over his carpet. And then he remembers the book the demon had shown him is a picture book, and not the novella it had originally gotten from the shelf.

“It’s certainly different,” Gakuho says.

Mr Hayasaki hands him a bag. “I understand you work from home, but if you ever need some quiet time to concentrate, you can always bring him down. I’m sure Aoi and Rei would love a new playmate.”

“That’s very nice,” Gakuho says.

Mrs Hayasaki beams at him, and Mr Hayasaki claps him on the shoulder, before they go on their way.

The demon tugs the bag out of Gakuho’s hands, and Gakuho lets him. He reaches to poke at a soft quilted ball that had just appeared on the couch. “These are real,” he says in astonishment.

“Course they are,” the demon says, and he looks through the hand-me-downs. “Oh, a train set! How nice.”

Gakuho picks up the ball. It’s soft. He looks between it and the demon, thinks for a moment, then throws it right at the demon’s head.

The demon catches it. “Woah! Give a kid some warning!”

Gakuho finds a smile on his lips. “I wanted to test your reflexes.”

“Better than yours,” the demon says, and sticks out its tongue.

Everyone in the apartment complex are gossipers. By noon the next day they all know that the quiet lonely man who lives alone in the penthouse is actually a single father with an adorable little child. He’s reserved because he got out of a disastrous divorce when his wife cheated with another, but he'd managed to get custody after she and her affair abused him (Mrs Hayasaki sure had an active imagination). 

“Ga-ku-shuu,” Gakuho says, rolling the name around his tongue in the mirror, because he has to practice saying it. 

It feels… strange. He doesn’t have a son. The demon disappears at night and reappears in the morning. Gakuho has converted the guest bedroom into a child’s for… to keep up appearances? In case? But the bed remains unused, because he’s still not sure where the demon goes at night.

Much later Gakuho thinks about all the insomnia he has during the bad times of his life, because he does not want to go to sleep and dream about things he wished didn’t plague him anymore. 

He jolts awake at night. The demon is at the foot of his bed, clutching a blanket and biting his lip, looking like he’s been crying.

Something logical in the back of Gakuho’s mind tells him that this child is a creature from hell. But it sniffles and rubs its eyes and Gakuho’s heart hurts, a little, and he sits up. “What’s wrong?”

“I had a nightmare,” it mumbles. “Can I sleep here with you?”

This is wrong. That’s a lie. The demon is not capable of nightmares.

“What is it?” Gakuho humors anyways.

“Fire,” the demon mumbles. And for a brief moment Gakuho wonders if it was maybe telling the truth.

“Fire?” Gakuho prompts.

It shakes his head. “Can I sleep here with you, please? You won’t even know I’m here.”

The sides of Gakuho’s lips turn down. “I thought you didn’t need sleep.”

“Oh,” the demon says, “well, I don’t need to eat either, but I still do.”

That, strangely enough, is what makes Gakuho slide over and pat the now empty space next to him in bed. If this had been some sort of strange skit the demon was attempting to roleplay, Gakuho would have just told it to leave. But there was something simple and truthful about that statement that... well.

The child clambers onto bed with it’s blanket and curls up at Gakuho’s side. “Night night,” it says, and then it’s immediately out cold, pocketed against the soft part of Gakuho’s stomach, and Gakuho stares at it.

“Are you really asleep?” He asks.

The child doesn’t stir. 

Gakuho finds himself patting its hair into the night, and sometime he must fall asleep himself because he wakes up when light streams into his window. He’s alone, a bare imprint on his sheets the only evident of the demon, and Gakuho is reminded of when people would sneak off after a one night stand or something of the sort.

He sees the little demon at the kitchen counter, standing on its tiptoes to reach a mug that its small form would not allow it to. When Gakuho arrives, it whips around and looks almost shy. 

And then Gakuho realizes that the thing about the nightmare was probably  _ true _ , and recalling their first meeting, he knows that this demon isn’t simply masquerading as a child. It  _ is _ a child. 

That makes him laugh, and the demon - Gakushuu, bares a row of tiny sharp teeth in response.

  
Gakuho researches into it. 

It’s a common need to covet affection. Humans are pack-bond animals, and it’s an evolutionary trait to want to have offspring. He hadn't thought he himself would fall folly to the whims of nature, and he thought the demon was messing with him. But one more month turns into two and then three and the demon turns into  _ Gakushuu _ , and Gakuho thought that he had to give the demon credit for knowing him better than he knew himself. 

Because when his parents up and left and abandoned him in the middle, he'd thought that if he ever had a child of his own, he would  _ never _ do such a thing. He'd care for them and love them more than he'd love himself, and that was before he figured that a child would tie him down and be a hassle, and that a family man with a picket fence and two and a half kids just wasn't the type of life he could envision for himself. He had too much ambition and drive and no where to spend it on, because what did you work for when there was no challenge, when you knew you could simply get where you wanted? 

A demon child, on the other hand. Despite Gakushuu's childish misgivings he was fully independent, and only took on a toddler-like demeanor for the aesthetic. He wasn't something that saddled Gakuho with unnecessary responsibility, and in fact could be regarded as an asset. Perhaps that was what the silver lining of children were, Gakuho muses, that they could shoulder their parents' burden and carry on their work when they grew up. Gakuho had certainly made the right choice in this, then, to have the benefit of having such a long-term investment and none of the trouble of the years in between. 

And seeing little Gakushuu in his likeness perhaps maybe brings a little bit of something nostalgic back out in him, because he thinks he sees himself. The childhood he could have wished for.

Maybe Gakushuu knew too much, when he spun his "backstory" right there and then to sell his existence to Mrs Hayasaki, but it tugs at Gakuho's heartstrings. It was all fake, of course, because Gakushuu came to be in the middle of a devil's circle on a dusty Thursday night in Gakuho's living room, but if Gakushuu had told that story and meant to make Gakuho hold him a bit tighter, then he had succeeded. 

And maybe Mr and Mrs Hayasaki were right. His house seemed a bit more colorful. He hadn't thought of that as a good thing, but it certainly wasn't  _ bad _ . 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is all I have for now, stay tuned for the next two chapters as we finally reach the pre-canon (cough Ikeda cough) and canon events, and further on?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yall I still don't know what this is.
> 
> Also gosh the expectations you guys are having for this fic is making me feel ???? I put no effort into this oh god I write chapters 1 and 2 in one sitting (split them up because I think it fits). I had no plot or concrete idea I just went off with a vibe. This is a lazy "haha yeah let's do this" fic. As of now I don't even have the final part (chapter 3) written.

"I know what direction you could further go in life." 

Gakuho looks up from his newspaper. Gakushuu is on the couch, staring at him, his legs kicking out into the air. 

"What?" 

"You could get a real job. I have one in mind that suits your needs." 

Gakuho frowns. He distinctly remembers a conversation like this, back before when the demon was not yet Gakushuu. "You think I need something else in my life?" 

"Of course," Gakushuu says, and laughs when he frowns. "This is by far the most relaxing contract I've been in. I'm flattered that you're satisfied with summoning a demon from the depths of hell for you to play house with, but I do have magical powers, you know. You could ask me for something other than breakfast in the morning and cuddles at night."

Gakuho turns red. "I-"

"I'm messing with you," Gakushuu says. "I'm fine the way we are, if you are. But I do think you should give my proposal a listen." 

“Alright, then,” Gakuho says. “What is your proposal?”

Gakushuu smiles. “You should become a teacher.”

“A teacher?” Gakuho furrows his brow. “What makes you think I would even want something like that? I am not teacher material at all.”

“And you thought you weren’t parent material as well, but I’m not dead yet,” Gakushuu grins.

Gakuho stares. A very low bar to set.

Gakushuu laughs. “Come on. Just give it a shot. When have I ever been wrong?”

Instead of a normal job application as a teacher in an already established school, Gakushuu tells him to set up his own. “You just wouldn’t do well abiding to rules of a system that are not your own,” Gakushuu says. 

“Setting up a cram school from scratch is a lot of work,” Gakuho says.

“Please,” Gakushuu rolls his eyes, which makes Gakuho smirk. Even if Gakushuu wasn’t his real child, they certainly had a similar attitude.

So Kunugigaoka Cram School is set up on top of a scenic looking hill, that Gakuho now has to climb every time he wishes to get up there. All Gakushuu does is smile when Gakuho asks why he would pick such an inconvenient location, which makes Gakuho narrow his eyes in suspicion.

And then Gakuho meets Ikeda Rikuto.

Ikeda Rikuto is everything Gakuho wished he could have been. He is full of bright-eyed wonder and exuberant passion, and he lights up the room with a smile. Gakuho feels a lot of things, and when Ikeda first hands him a result slip, “Sensei, you helped me get such a high score!” What Gakuho feels is pride.

He invests time and effort into teaching Ikeda Rikuto. He is unlike Gakushuu in so many ways, because he is not capable of all the otherworldly things Gakushuu is capable of. But somehow that makes him all the more magnificent, because he manages to be brilliant despite his human limitations.

Gakuho would have liked a successor in Gakushuu. But he would like one in Ikeda too. To pass on a legacy, to teach what he wished he learnt when needed it - so he teaches Rikuto to be kind, and he wants Rikuto to have the type of life that Gakuho never had, which makes Gakushuu smile and look like he has something to say but never says it. 

But Gakuho should have known it was too good to be true. He was the kind of man who sold his soul to a demon. Nothing good ever lasted in his life.

Ikeda Rikuto jumps to his death at aged 17 because Gakuho taught him how to live in an idealized society, the life he wished he had as a child. But life was never ideal, and he himself should have known better, because he has scrapes on his hands and knees from where he had to crawl up from rock bottom.

What was he thinking? 

“I can’t bring him back,” Gakushuu says. “That’s not the scope of my power-”

“THEN WHAT GOOD ARE YOU?!” Gakuho yells.

There’s a silence so heavy and tense between them, and Gakuho breathes heavy but Gakushuu doesn’t breathe at all. He steadies his pulse, calms himself down… 

Gakushuu is staring at him impassively.

“Those people that killed him. I want them as good as dead. I want their lives ruined.”

Gakushuu’s straight stare melts into an amused, contented sort of gaze and his eyes - his violet eyes, the very same ones Gakuho sees in the mirror every morning, glow a lazy red.

This, Gakuho thinks, is the first time he’d made a request of Gakushuu truly befitting for a demon from hell.

“Now that,” Gakushuu purrs, “I can do.”

Gakuho feels something heavy and dirty in him when Gakushuu calls him Dad. Despite all that he has done and how his morals align, Gakuho is not a murderer. 

Gakushuu is happy, satisfied, when he returns home. He is clean and he smells of his shampoo. Gakuho finds out from him the names of Ikeda’s bullies who drove him to suicide, and two days later on the news their bodies are found. Gakushuu is seated beside him then, curled up, and he says, “oops.”

Something dark and terrified unfurls in the pit of Gakuho’s belly.

Demons don’t sleep and that is why it is horrifying, twofold, that Gakushuu sleeps so soundly in his room at night with the things he has done. It makes Gakuho wonder about whose blood exactly was in Gakushuu’s -  _ the demon’s _ hands. He has let down his human child and yet this demon lives in his life. 

So when Gakushuu calls him Dad one fine day, it reminds Gakuho that Gakushuu isn’t really his son, that underneath all that faux-human exterior he is a demon, through and true. He blames himself a little bit for having almost forgotten that, for letting his guard down. The moment  _ the demon _ had turned into  _ Gakushuu _ was the moment Gakuho had slipped into dangerous territory, but Gakuho is glad he caught himself before he slid too far. 

His contract was still there, but he has read stories on how demons prey on momentary lapses in their contractors’ hold over them and end their terms early.

Gakuho says, “don’t.”

Gakushuu turns inscrutable eyes at him. “My apologies, director,” he says pleasantly. He must have known. 

One has to be strong in order to survive. Gakuho is strong, and ruthless, and he has made it this far in life. He is a teacher now, and he has a responsibility to impart that sort of values into the younger generation, to avoid repeating the mistakes of history.

He pours himself into his work, creating a brutal curriculum that ensures his students would emerge the cream of the crop, ready to fight tooth and nail any challenges they would ever face. Perhaps fight the devil themselves, should the need arise.

Kunugigaoka Cram School becomes Kunugigaoka Middle School and Kunugigaoka High School. The satellite classroom up on the hill remains, but Gakuho does not teach there. He cannot enter there without remembering too much. But from its ashes he builds an empire, Gakushuu at his side.

And then Gakushuu enrolls into Kunugigaoka Middle School.

“Director,” he says, on his first day. “How remarkable of a student do you want me to be?”

Gakuho blinks at him. “Pardon?”

“Well, it’s not exactly fair ground for me,” Gakushuu says. “I can know as much or as little as you want.”

Gakuho considers that. “No apparent son of mine would be a loser,” Gakuho says. “Secure a top spot. Although don’t be too overboard with it.”

Gakushuu laughs. “Of course, director.”

The first two years of Gakushuu’s schooling goes by unremarkably, expectedly. It’s during the dawn of the third year that the moon explodes.

“You know what that is,” Gakuho accuses.

“Of course,” Gakushuu says, from where he’s lounging by the windowsill. “Don’t worry. You will too, soon.”

An octopus supercreature that destroyed the moon certainly isn’t one of his guesses, and him demanding to teach 3-E at the satellite classroom is ranked even lower than that on the list of possibilities. Gakuho comes home from that meeting exhausted, only to see Gakushuu grinning at him.

Little brat. 

The supercreature threatens the failsafe system Gakuho has built. It irks him. 

“I can control my own results,” Gakushuu says, “but I cannot control the aptitude of my schoolmates. I can make you win, but I suspect that you would not like the false affirmation very much.”

Gakuho is reminded that Gakushuu knows him very well. Gakuho wants indisputable proof of his success, and the students would not be prepared for the real world should they have a false victory here. He curls his lip and tells Gakushuu to make his schoolmates do better, and Gakushuu laughs. “Rest assured, director,” he says, “that my decisions will ensure what is best for you.”

That puts Gakuho at ease, or so he thinks. Because despite Gakushuu’s words, 3-E somehow claws their way to the top, and Gakushuu reminds him (and he looks somewhat miffed as well, that he himself cannot use his demonic magic to brainwash his classmates to score better) that there is only so much he can do should Gakuho wishes to remain an integrous man.

“A victory I secure for you will not be the true testament of your abilities,” Gakushuu warns. “And sabotaging 3-E in any way would have the same dampening. You may wait until the hubris gets the better of them, if you wish.”

Gakuho surveys Gakushuu. “Will it?”

“That will happen, at some point,” Gakushuu says. “They are riding a high on their achievements. They will slip and fall. They will, however, also pull back up.”

Gakuho leans back in his seat and scowls. “What should I do.”

Gakushuu doesn't answer him, because Gakuho hadn’t been asking him a question. The smile on his face is, however, disconcerting, and Gakuho dismisses him from his office.

Gakushuu is right. When is he not? 3-E, too high on confidence, injure an innocent civilian and are being punished by the octopus, Koro-sensei. Koro-sensei sacrifices his students’ grades to teach them a lesson, which… is something Gakuho can respect. It is not what he would have done, because he would have driven them to make amends and study at the same time, but he can empathize with someone who sticks to their principles.

He strikes up a rapport with Koro-sensei then. He reminds him of Gakushuu, from how he procures snacks from various parts of the world. It is more inefficient, however, since he actually needs to travel to these places, unlike instant teleportation. And, curious, he asks Gakushuu about Koro-sensei.

“Koro-sensei was once a human,” Gakushuu tells him. 

“What kind of circumstances had he been mixed up in?” Gakuho asks.

Gakushuu laughs. “It is a long story. You will not believe it the first time I tell you.”

Koro-sensei is a human assassin called Reaper. He is, supposedly, the best assassin in the world. He clearly wasn’t, because he gets betrayed by his apprentice, and sent to a laboratory to be used as a human test subject. (That part reminds Gakuho ot Gakushuu. Koro-sensei’s fatal mistake had been not recognizing the danger his apprentice posed, and trusting him.) 

Aguri Yukimura, the teacher before Koro-sensei, was working in the laboratory. She had somehow snuck her way into Koro-sensei’s heart through the year she worked with him. The antimatter experiments that Koro-sensei had undergone was discovered to have the danger of blowing up the earth, to prevent that, Koro-sensei was to be terminated. He attempted escaped in a panic, but Aguri unfortunately died in the crossfire that occurred. To atone for her memory, he decided to spend his last year on earth before an explosion to fulfil her passion, which was to tech 3-E.

Gakushuu is right, again. That was unbelievable.

“But I still have no choice but to believe it,” Gakuho sighs. Gakushuu doesn’t lie to him. 

Gakuho wonders a bit more about Koro-sensei then. A world-class assassin is exactly a kind of character Gakuho imagines would summon a demon. He is intrigued.

But intrigue or not, he is still threatening Gakuho’s system. 3-A is getting more discouraged as time goes by, even with Gakushuu trying to spur them, so he has to take matters into his own hands. He becomes their teacher for the last stretch and runs them hard until they are spitting back answers as quickly as he throws questions to them. He does not worry about Gakushuu, who he knows would do what is required of him, and he feels a little bit of properital pride as Gakushuu goes around helping his classmates when they are too afraid to approach him. Funny, because Gakuho is not the demon between them.

Except Gakushuu fails.

3-E secures all the top spots and Gakushuu comes in second-place to Karma Akabane.

Gakuho doesn’t know how to react. He doesn’t know what to say. As much as he would have hated to admit it, the tiniest part of him was prepared for failure, for 3-E to surpass 3-A anyways. But what he hadn’t in any circumstance expected  _ Gakushuu _ to lose. 

The only way he could have, is if Gakushuu lost on purpose.

And there it is. His own fatal flaw. Even after he tells himself time and time again to be wary of where he steps, and when Gakuho needs him most, Gakushuu betrays him.

Gakuho had been short-sighted. He’d been caught up with literal matters of life and death - and Gakushuu had told him about Koro-sensei’s assassin background! He’d distracted Gakuho with the very notion of it! That he’d forgotten to expect betrayal in all its other ways. The last stretch, the final bit needed for Gakuho to achieve his victory! To prove that his system is infallible!

And Gakushuu takes all of that and spits him in the face with it.

“You,” Gakuho growls. 

“Director,” Gakushuu says, “you know I only do what’s best for you-”

And before Gakuho even registers his actions Gakushuu is already on the other side of the classroom, crumpled against the desks, one cheek bleeding from where Gakuho had slapped him in the face with. 

Gakushuu looks up at him, and for the first time Gakuho has ever seen him, he looks scared. (No. Gakuho remembers this expression on his face when Gakushuu was five, tugging at the corner of his bedsheet saying he had a nightmare-)

No! Demons aren’t supposed to sleep! They aren’t supposed to have nightmares, they aren’t supposed to feel scared, and Gakushuu wasn’t supposed to  _ betray him- _

But this was not his real son. Gakushuu was never his real son. Of course he was going to betray him. That’s how they get you, creeping under your skin until you trusted them, like Koro-sensei with his apprentice, and then-

He has the plan of a desperate man. This is why he didn’t want any sort of emotional attachment, because it made him lose control of himself. He hadn’t felt this sort of irrational rage since he was a teen but he had taken grenades up to the 3-E classroom, and only when his plan blows up in his face (literally) does he realize the repercussions of his actions.

He’d brought grenades to a class of fifteen year olds.

“I heard something has happened with you and Gakushuu today,” Koro-sensei says, when they’re both alone.

How tactful. “Indeed,” Gakuho says.

“You both have a wonderful relationship,” Koro-sensei says. “I wish I could treasure my time with my students the same way. Don’t let a minor mistake come between you both.”

Hah! If only he knew. “Gakushuu,” Gakuho says, “is a demon.”

Koro-sensei laughs. “You speak of him fondly.”

Gakuho was not  _ fond _ .

He does not want to apologize to a demon. The house is immaculate when he arrives, which is how it always looks when Gakushuu is done with housework, except that Gakushuu himself is nowhere to be seen. He does not appear later in the evening and he does not appear at night, and only then does Gakuho wonder if he had gone too far.

But Gakushuu was a demon. Surely a slap like that would have done nothing. Gakushuu had supernatural human abilities and pain tolerance, surely…

...but the kid had nightmares. Did he still get them?

Why would a demon even get nightmares?

Gakuho is not one to beat around the bush or wait for something to happen. There is a connection between them that allows Gakuho to summon his charge whenever he needs. It’s not something he’s used yet, because Gakushuu was always by his side - and if he was not, he knew Gakuho well enough to appear just when he was needed.

Gakuho closes his eyes and frowns to himself. He searches for that thread inside of him - low, humming - that ties him to Gakushuu stronger and deeper and colder than anyone could ever imagine… and its there, loose and lazy, and Gakuho grabs onto it and pulls it taut.

"Gakushuu," he says, "come." 

And when he opens his eyes again Gakushuu is there. 

“Director,” Gakushuu says tonelessly.

“Gakushuu,” Gakuho says. 

His face is clean and unmarked. Gakuho feels relieved. 

“I hit you,” he says.

Gakushuu’s face shutters. 

Gakuho’s never seen Gakushuu like this. When he reaches out Gakushuu does not flinch, but he does watch Gakuho’s hand with a wariness he’d never before had. 

“You’re scared of me,” Gakuho says, and Gakushuu stares at him acidically. “Why? I’ve never hit you before this. You have no reason to be have been wary.”

“But you ended up doing it,” Gakushuu says. He blinks, and his eyes are glowing red. “All my contractors hit me. I knew it was a matter of time before you did.”

Something in Gakuho’s heart twists. “Why?”

“It’s easy,” Gakushuu says. “I’m a child.”

That’s… “That’s wrong.”

“Oh? You’re the one to talk about what is right and wrong. Need I remind you of what you have done? You may not have physically hurt any of the children, but the 3-E system?” Gakushuu bares his teeth at him, and suddenly they’re so much sharper. “You are blind.”

Gakuho winces. “I-”

“What do you think the best match means?” Gakushuu interrupts him.

“What?”

“When you first summoned me, I told you I was your best match. I know who you are and what you want, yes, but the match extends further than that. You are cynical and not desperate, and you would have been more wary of yourself and of an adult demon should you have met one. You may not have gone through with the deal after all. And your desire - even if you had not known it then - was for… Gakushuu. An adult demon could have gotten you a child, but it is far easier for a child to just  _ be _ one. That’s what a good match is.

“Do you know how many contractors I have met? People just like you, sitting on the fence, and they get a child demon so they let their guard down. There’s a marked power imbalance, you see, that makes them feel safe and assured to take the deal. But that imbalance always gets abused. The nature of their desire, too, what they would wager for their soul. How many people at the end of their derangement, do you think - how many pedophiles and the like do you think I’ve met? They are foolish, is what they are, because they give up their souls for that tiny smidgen of pleasure. I can tell you I take great pleasure in ripping it out of them afterwards.”

Gakushuu blinks at him, and then looks away, like he thinks he’s said too much. Then he disappears, leaving Gakuho in the middle of his room, alone.

Gakushuu is not there in the morning but he is there in school. He has a bandage on his face, likely for the aesthetic, because the wound Gakuho had given him would not have healed overnight.

He decides to talk to Koro-sensei again. He does not think speaking to a human would help, and Koro-sensei is the furthest thing from human right now. 

Koro-sensei tells him about his backstory. It’s everything exactly what Gakushuu had told him, because Gakushuu doesn’t lie. He thinks about what Gakushuu had said to him - what he’d chosen to do is best for Gakuho. That itself, Gakuho knows in all the other times - being his son, persuading him to open up a school and teach. It has brought Gakuho further in life than he’d ever thought he’d go, up till when he’s defending the principles with a drive he didn’t know he had.

“Gakushuu said,” Gakuho muses, interrupting Koro-sensei. “He lost to Karma because it was what was best for me.”

Koro-sensei sounds curious. “He deliberately threw the exam?”

“There’s no way for him to have lost marks otherwise,” Gakuho says, which makes Koro-sensei laugh, because he probably sounds like just a father with high expectations. “What do you think he meant?”

"Well,” Koro-sensei says. “Maybe he wanted you to see something you’ve been missing.”

Gakushuu is not there when Gakuho gets home. He returns in the evening, however, and goes through the motions of a nightly routine. He almost turns in when Gakuho stops him.

“Why?” Gakuho asks, and Gakushuu immediately knows what Gakuho is asking for, because he knows Gakuho better than anyone.

“You hated your life,” Gakushuu says bluntly, and he keeps speaking, even as Gakuho feels each word stab him in the chest. “Because you never had a family who was there for you, and you had to learn everything the hard way because no one ever taught you what you needed to know the most. But that’s what you wanted - a family, but you’ll not have a husband or a wife, because it’d take too long for you to trust someone after witnessing your parents’ disaster. You would love teaching, because you want to be the person you wished was there for you. Ikeda Rikuto was perfect for that, because you saw yourself in him, but his fate was not mine to decide. You were on the right path then, but you lost your way. This was how you needed to find it again.”

Gakuho blinks and his vision goes away blurry. “Why?” He asks, again, this time he means, why would Gakushuu do all this? Was it because of the nature of their contract, that Gakuho did not put a specific goal down? It defied logic for what little about demon contracts he had read on. Gakushuu should have been fighting to cut corners, to seal the deal, to end the contract as soon as possible…

...although, because the contract is a date, there’s no way for Gakushuu to do so.

“Because,” Gakushuu says, and his voice is soft, “when my contractors get what they want, they don’t do anything to me.”

Gakuho steps forward and hugs him tight.

. 

“So you’re on good terms with your son now.”

Gakuho narrows his eyes at Koro-sensei, who’s grinning at him. Was he spying on them?

“I could tell,” Koro-sensei says. “You seem happier today.”

Ah. “We had a conversation,” Gakuho says.

“That’s good. I’m happy for you.”

“So, ex-assassin Reaper, I have questions for you.”

“What are they?”

“Have you ever met people with dealings in the occult?”

Koro-sensei seems to consider that question. “Well, a couple of people, I suppose… there were cults that tried to summon demons, people who claimed to be witches, that sort of thing. Frivolous things, really.”

“Ah,” Gakuho says. “I was curious.”

Koro-sensei snickers. “You wouldn’t have sold your soul to the devil, would you?”

Gakuho inclines his head. “I have, actually.”

Koro-sensei laughs, obviously regarding it as a joke. Gakuho had mused about telling someone about Gakushuu, and Gakushuu had said, “well, that’s up to you, really. Summoning a demon is commonly not a burden that one shoulders on their own. A couple of friends who know, for example, so they know how to explain any disappearances and settle your belongings after your deal is up. Although I suppose Koro-sensei would be long gone by then so he can’t exactly be your will keeper.”

Gakuho doesn’t bother asking why Gakushuu knows he was considering speaking to Koro-sensei. 

“Besides,” Gakushuu says. “I can just wipe their memories if things go south.”

Well then.

Gakuho closes his eyes.."Gakushuu," he says, "come." 

And when he opens his eyes again Gakushuu is there. 

Koro-sensei freezes. Gakuho does not blame him. There is no suitable response for when your employer's son appears out of thin air in the middle of the room. 

Koro-sensei starts, "A-A-Asano-" 

Gakushuu's voice is soft, pleasant, and Gakuho can tell from the playful lilt in his tone that he is enjoying the shock on Koro-sensei's face. "Yes, director?" 

"This is him," Gakuho says. 

"I don't understand." 

"I told you, I made a deal with a demon. Gakushuu is that demon." 

"It's nice to formally meet you, Koro-sensei," Gakushuu says, inclining his head with a small smile. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did I write this?
> 
> One last part to go!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is! This chapter is a little bit shorter than the previous two.

There are a few weeks left to Koro-sensei's termination. Gakushuu does not tell him there is no way to save Koro-sensei but Gakuho already knows. 

So Koro-sensei dies. Gakuho’s work in Kunugigaoka is cast away like that as the media goes up in flames. 

“His memory should not be tainted,” Gakuho says, “he should not go down in history as a monster.” They were friends, oddly enough. Koro-sensei got over his shock and then he spends time interested in the occult. Aside from that, they talk about their careers, their future and their lives. Gakuho thinks he would have had liked to continue to be friends with Koro-sensei if he lived. 

How odd, that the only friend Gakuho makes is the least human a human could possibly be.

“The best teacher, then?” Gakushuu says. “One who lived and died for his students.”

“That…” Gakuho toys with a pen, looking out the window. “If you can make it work.”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes good-naturedly. “Of course.”

So he defends 3-E on graduation day as reporters swarm them. Then ask them for testimonials, for evidence, for pictures (although he could get them himself.) “Why?” 3-E asks.

“Well, the director and Koro-sensei reached an understanding of some sort,” Gakushuu says. “I may not understand it, but I will do what is in the best favor of the director’s wishes and Koro-sensei’s memory.”

Gakushuu can only do so much, if he’s against the rest of the world. There are obvious signs of his influence, splinter groups in the media defending Koro-sensei, some major news outlets hesitatingly reporting 3-E’s version of events. 

The backlash, for the most part, outweighs that and Gakuho has to step down from his managerial position at Kunugigaoka. Gakushuu asks him what he wishes to do.

“You tell me,” Gakuho says. 

Gakushuu laughs. “You have reignited your passion for teaching. You should not let it go so easily.” 

“High school?”

“Well, I am a fifteen year old teenaged boy,” Gakushuu says, amused. “I could take the route of homeschooling, but once the final preparations for Asano Cram School are underway, you’d be too busy to be bored without me. Besides, I figured you would want someone to keep tabs on Kunugigaoka while you’re gone.”

“Well…” Gakuho doesn’t quite expect to have to be separated from Gakushuu this quickly. Separated isn’t the apt term, because they’re still (ahem) “father and son”, but he’d been used to spending the bulk of his time with Gakushuu. And now the boy will be off in high school, to play the part.

Also. “I am not  _ bored _ without you,” Gakuho lies. “I’ve been a very productive and interesting person even before you came along.”

Gakushuu laughs. “I’m sure,” he says.

So Gakushuu goes off to high school. Gakuho gets a brand new batch of wide-eyed, curious students for his cram school, and soon enough for the third time his first batch of students graduate middle school with brilliant result slips. Time passes quickly, and there are no threats to the world. 

He feels pride, watching his students grow. There was a passion in them, and they wanted to do better. Gakuho feels a little nostalgic when he looks at them (he must be getting on with his age) and he thinks of how he wished he had that sort of fire in his eyes, something to work for and achieve when he had been younger. 

He'd gone through the earlier part of his life with bitterness and spite, but he certainly didn't have a goal. He'd simply wanted the arbitrary title of  _ best _ , and once he thought he'd reached the top he just stated aimlessly with no where else to go. 

Except he found something, didn't he? Strangely enough, some version of fatherhood that he doesn't think actually _counts_. A passion to teach, to take every piece of knowledge and experience that was beaten into him to make sure no one else gets that treatment. He may have stumbled a few times trying, but he thinks he's on the right track.

And it was Gakushuu that got him here. 

Then Gakuho goes like a proud parent to his son’s high school graduation, and Gakushuu beams at him.

“Director-”

“Dad,” Gakuho corrects, surprising even himself. “If you’re going to graduate high school with my name, at least call me-”

“Dad,” Gakushuu says, and sweeps him into a grand hug.

Hugging is nice. Why didn't they hug much sooner? 

“It is my first time graduating high school, after all,” Gakushuu says, when Gakuho asks why he’s genuinely excited. “Perhaps I’ve been pretending to be a human for too long but it genuinely does feel like a milestone!”

And then- “College?!”

“I can fake a degree if you want,” Gakushuu shrugs. “But I suggest you let me go.”

Gakuho stares at him warily. “Are you saying that just because you want the experience?”

“I mean, yes too,” Gakushuu says. “But trust me. I can still come over instantaneously if you want someone to play chess against you at night or something. It will be worth it. When have I ever been wrong?”

Gakushuu spends four years overseas in MIT. Gakushuu does not pop over every night, and they end up having many many video calls over Gakuho’s midnight or Gakushuu’s midnight. He doesn’t understand how it was supposed to be worth it, because now all he does is work and miss Gakushuu.

“I really wish he would have gone to college closer to home,” Gakuho laments.

Mr Hayasaki pats him on the back. “He will graduate before you know it.”

In the kitchen, Mrs Hayasaki laughs. “We were the same way when Rei chose to school abroad. But absence makes the heart grow fonder, or so they say.”

"Does it?"

"Of course!" Mrs Hayasaki says. "It's very easy to take things like time for granted. So easy to let the days slip by. When you miss someone, the time you spend together just seems so much more treasured." 

Does Gakuho miss Gakushuu? 

But suddenly the video calls seem so much longer. Gakushuu's smile takes up the screen and his laugh fills his ears. It's been a month, Gakuho realizes, 

"Can you come over?" 

Gakushuu sounds surprised. "Now?" 

But when Gakuho blinks again Gakushuu is no longer in the computer screen, and he's seated next to Gakuho now. 

"What's up?" Gakushuu asks. "Do you need me to get groceries again, because- oof!" 

Gakuho doesn't have a rationale to why he's hugging Gakushuu. He just wanted to do it, he guesses. 

"Hey," Gakushuu says softly, and hugs him back. "Missed me that much, huh?" 

Gakuho feels his face heat up. "No," he lies. 

Gakushuu laughs. "I knew you'd figure it out."

Gakuho grumbles. "How is making me miss you  _ worth it _ ?" 

"You get a net higher rush of endorphins if you see me once in a while instead of every day," Gakushuu says. 

"That's stupid."

"That's not the only benefit."

"What other benefit would  _ I _ get from  _ you _ going away to college for 4 years that you can't already do here?" 

Gakuho never learns his lesson. He keeps second guessing Gakushuu even though he knows he will always be wrong. 

Turns out, high school graduation does not compare to college graduation in the slightest.

Gakuho had been there to see his students graduate from middle school, and often he gets invited so some high school graduations as well. If not, they send him a text or an email. "You helped me achieve this!" He is a teacher, this is his job, and he takes pride in it. 

This is his first time at someone's college graduation. And out of everyone this is his  _ son's  _ college graduation, the boy whom he'd watched grow up since he was five years old, and he'd waited four years for this moment. 

No one had been there many years ago to watch Gakuho collect his valedictory. He's standing there for Gakushuu, and he doesn't even think about how that certificate is technically worthless. Gakushuu pretends to scan the crowd as if he does not know where Gakuho is seated, and Gakuho  _ knows _ that, but his heart jolts all the same when Gakushuu pretends to finally spot him. 

It turns out, that rush is-

"-You're coming home," Gakuho blurts, when he meets Gakushuu in the courtyard. 

Gakushuu laughs. "I am."

Gakuho hugs him for an embarrassingly long time. Everyone else is doing too, so, whatever.

Gakushuu has to ruin the moment. "You wouldn't feel this sort of emotion if I went to college any closer, would you?"

Gakuho admits defeat. "Fine, you were right." 

They vacation in America for a little bit, since Gakuho is there anyways. 

"You know, we could go anywhere anytime," Gakushuu says. "I could take us to the Caribbean right now." 

"You could," Gakuho agrees, "but a good part of a vacation is the travelling." 

"You only say that because you can afford business class," Gakushuu teases. "I can't imagine you slumming it out in economy." 

"What good is doing anything when you can get instant gratification?" 

"Normal human beings enjoy instant gratification, you know. Some humans like a life without challenges."

"Now that simply isn't fun. I doubt I'd be able to live like that."

"Yes, which is why you decided to summon a demon." 

"Putting up with you daily is a challenge in itself." 

Gakushuu moves back home. 

Gakuho's students are interested to know about Gakuho's travels to America, and Gakushuu comes into his class to tell them all about MIT. It excites them, and gives them a goal to work towards, and Gakuho reminds them they have to pick a high school first.

"You guys," he laughs, "still have a long way to go." 

The clock ticks. 

"Happy fiftieth." 

Gakuho pauses in his work, and turns to look at Gakushuu, who's smiling back at him. "What?" 

"It's midnight now," Gakushuu says, motioning at the clock. "Your birthday. Happy birthday!"

Something about Gakushuu's tone makes a chill run up Gakuho's spine. He looks at the clock on his computer 

00:01

and then back at Gakushuu, who's still smiling. 

"What?" Gakushuu says. "Oh, did you forget?" 

The next breath Gakuho takes is heavy. 

"Would you rather know how you're going to die, or when?" 

Gakuho inhales sharply. He turns to look at Gakushuu, who's nursing a bottle of gin in his lap. 

"I suppose that question isn't fair to you," Gakushuu says. 

"I…" 

"But knowing how," Gakushuu says, "just breeds paranoia, doesn't it? It's human nature to wish to avoid death, and yet it's inevitable. Imagine if you knew you were going to die in a car crash, but not when. Would you leave the house? Cross the street? How terrified would you be? Wonder about, for days at a time locked in your apartment, whether a car would somehow make its way in and run you over?"

"Knowing  _ when _ , on the other hand," Gakushuu says, tapping his chin. "Ideal for the conscientious." 

Gakuho looks down at his half-drafted lesson plan, frowning. 

Gakushuu walks up and looks over his shoulder. "Move this," he taps on a square, "here." 

Gakuho doesn't ask. He simply makes the amendment. 

Gakuho is old. He feels it in his steps. 

He keeps up with his exercises to keep his body fit and healthy, he ensures that he is in good shape. It is the emotional toll of his deadline, the sudden reminder that makes everything darker around the edges…

Except Gakushuu reminded him for a reason. He did everything like that, even the little things that Gakuho first thought seemed counterproductive to him. (He thinks about when Gakushuu lost on purpose one time in middle school, and Gakuho had mistakenly thought he was trying to bring down his life’s work, when Gakushuu had in fact been trying to save it.)

So he thinks, because he enjoys a puzzle, and because he does not immediately want to ask Gakushuu why. He thinks about what Gakushuu has said.

And then he comes to the conclusion that Gakushuu had told him to remind him to tie up his loose ends. What had he said? Knowing when one would die was a burden only to the unprepared. Gakuho was not a man that likes to leave unfinished business behind. How many other people, far unluckier than he is, left their lives filled with regret because of all the many things they have wanted to do, but had no chance to do them?

Gakushuu had given him the reminder, and the option to do those things.

Strangely enough, Gakuho can’t quite find any unturned stone that hasn’t been settled. He has the recipe of an ideal life - money, a job he enjoys, fulfillment from a legacy he’d leave behind through his students, a son…

He'd never thought he'd get here. The Gakuho from twenty years ago and the Gakuho now had nothing to tick off his to-do list, but what Gakuho feels is beyond the imagination of his younger self's. 

Well, he supposed that if anything, there was one thing he wanted to continue doing...

“Let’s go to the Caribbean.”

“That’s out of the blue,” Gakushuu says, and then snickers to himself for the sea pun. Gakuho smacks him lightly on the back of his head.

“Don’t make me say why,” Gakuho grumbles, because he knows Gakushuu knows.

He does. “You want to spend more time with me,” Gakushuu laughs. “That’s good. I want to spend more time with you too.”

A lie or not, Gakuho feels his heart warm. 

“I’ll get the tickets,” Gakushuu says. 

He snaps his fingers and a pair of flight tickets appears in his hands. How funny, that he’s using his powers for such mundane things. He could achieve the same effect with a few clicks of a button. Technology was a magic in itself. 

“Three days,” Gakushuu says, and hands him a ticket. “Go and pack. And tell your students you’re going on vacation.”

“Why do I need to pack when you’re coming?”   
“Well, you humans like the experience, don’t you?” Gakushuu teases. “If you want to explain to airport security why you’re leaving empty-handed in case they think you’re on a suicide mission, be my guest…”

Gakuho throws a couch cushion at him.

The Caribbean was pretty fun. 

"You want to know something?" Gakushuu says to him one day, sitting down across him. "You're my favorite." 

Gakuho tilts his head. "What?" 

"My favorite contractor," Gakushuu smiles softly. 

"O-oh." 

"I've been summoned for mundane human sins like lust or gluttony or greed. I've been used and beaten and tossed around. But you, Dad," he says, "are the one person who summoned me to love me." 

Gakushuu wipes away tears that Gakuho doesn't realize have fallen. He laughs a little. 

"Gakushuu," Gakuho murmurs. 

Gakushuu leans forward and presses a soft kiss to Gakuho's cheek. 

Gakuho doesn’t think he ever told Gakushuu he loves him. He wonders if Gakushuu knows. He probably does, because Gakushuu reads him like an open book, but maybe he's feeling nostalgic. Maybe he wishes his parents have said that to him, anyways, whether or not they meant it. 

"Gakushuu," Gakuho calls. 

Gakushuu wanders over, snacking on a… something. That something has blinking eyes. It's little things like this that remind Gakuho that Gakushuu is not human. 

Sometimes Gakuho does not want the reminder. Those times are days where Gakuho feels haunted by his mortality, where he wants to live, where he wonders why he did something stupid like sell his soul to a demon, where he wonders if he would have found this path anyways if he didn't. 

Sometimes Gakuho does not mind the reminder. Gakushuu is a demon, and that nature in itself is what brought Gakuho this far and gave him everything he has. He appreciates it, and he loves Gakushuu all the same for it. 

Gakushuu pops the rest of the something into his mouth. He smiles, head inclined. "Yes?" 

Gakuho looks at him. "I love you." 

Gakushuu laughs, bright and elated, and Gakuho's heart soars. He dives into the open space in Gakuho's arms. 

"Dad! I love you too!" 

Gakuho feels like he's thirty again. 

And one day Gakushuu brings home a dog. 

"It's a shelter mutt," Gakushuu says, rubbing its ears affectionately. "It is old. It has a few months left to live." 

"Oh," Gakuho says. He leans dow n to pet the dog, who sniffs his hand affectionately. 

Gakuho does not need to wonder what Gakushuu wishes to tell him with this. He can draw the parallel himself, and as much as it is another reminder that Gakuho's time will be up soon, he takes it for what it is. 

A gift. 

The dog comes to his school with him once. The students adore it. Gakuho has found a brilliant batch of successors for his school, and he feels safe leaving it in their hands. The younger teachers laugh when he says he will retire soon, because he's still active and spry. 

Gakushuu does not tell him when the dog is supposed to die. Gakuho thinks that is another piece of advice in itself. Each day might be the last, so he treats the dog like as if it is so. He walks the dog and gives it treats and belly rubs, strokes it and tosses a ball and tires it out. Then the dog lies over his lap, happily snoozing, and Gakuho wonders how he has gotten so content. 

When the dog dies, he knows because he comes home one day and Gakushuu is stroking it on his lap, except the dog never willingly goes to Gakushuu ever. Maybe it can sense something off about him. 

Gakushuu looks up at Gakuho. 

Before he left for work, Gakuho took it around the block and stroked it behind the ears and gave it a piece of meat jerky, and the dog wagged its tail at him before it snoozed by the door to wait for him to come home. 

"It went in its sleep," Gakushuu says. 

"That's nice," Gakuho murmurs. 

The last few days are quiet like that. There are no spontaneous bucket list trips or risky endeavors. There are lazy mornings of full breakfasts and afternoons in the reading nooks or the park or stretched out on the couch. 

Nighttimes Gakushuu knocks on his door and slips into bed with him. 

"What if I get a nightmare?" Gakushuu says. 

"What will you even get nightmares about?" Gakuho asks, even though Gakushuu has seen more than Gakuho ever will. 

"Missing you."

"Will you?" 

"Of course, dad." 

"I'll miss you too." 

"You won't be able to do that where you're going." 

"I'll find a way." 

Gakuho wraps the final things up. His assets will go into education, his school and several charities of Gakushuu's choosing. How funny to make a demon choose a bunch of charities. He sells his house to a happy young couple with an adorable little baby, and tells them he wants to move somewhere more scenic in his old age. He wonders If his death would bring property values down, and Gakushuu tells him there won't even be a body left to find. So he sets up several auto return mails, so make it seem like he has spontaneously moved sooner than he intended. 

On the eve of Gakuho's sixtieth birthday, it is a slow soft day. 

“Gakushuu, I…”

Gakushuu smiles at him softly, a hand cradling his cheek. “Yes, dad?”

"Times like this I remember what a demon you are. A ruthless cruel one, Gakushuu, to have given me so much to miss."

Gakushuu smiles at him, but he looks sad. 

"Why are you crying?" Gakuho murmurs. "I should be the one crying." 

"You've settled everything there is to settle," Gakushuu says. "You lived your life, didn't you? Of course I'm crying. I will miss you." 

"I hope you find good contractors," Gakuho tells him. "I hope they love you as good as I could." 

Gakushuu laughs wetly. "Not better?" 

"How could you?" Gakuho teases. "Dad loves you best." 

00:00 

“Dad,” Gakushuu murmurs, “I love you too. This won’t hurt at all, okay?”

00:01

And he’s right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nobody:  
> Gwen, after working on this fic for a grand total of three (3) days: I'm sick of it. I'm done. I'm tired. I'll never touch this again.
> 
> I feel like I could put in more effort and ramp up the emotions, but I'm feeling rather lethargic and lazy right now... and I kind of like it. This fic was written over three days from the hours of 11pm to 3am and that's exactly the vibe I'm going for. Discography is like the pocket, inverse version of Illuminate. 
> 
> Thanks again to WhatTheFridgeDude for their awesome fic that inspired this (check out the link in the first chapter notes or the inspired by section), and to Leo and Purpleiny for throwing out random words for my title without any context.


End file.
